Building Update

BUILDING UPDATE:: 
Our vision to purchase and build out tides church in Lake Elsinore is moving along!  We had a meeting with the City of Lake Elsinore and they gave us some chores to do before we can move along with the process.  We are in the process now of submitting a text ammendment.  This will allow us to change the zoning verbage.  Right now it shows that a church can exist there but only on a temporary basis of two years then they have to leave.  Well there is no way we could agree to those terms.  So they suggested that we submit a text ammendment to allow us to exist there on a permanent basis.  The encouraging part of this is that they asked us to do it.  They believe that the zoning is antiquated and out of date.  In fact the last time it had been ammended was in 1989.  After that is approved we will need to apply for a conditional use permit which will also take some time.

This is the most time consuming part of the whole process because it requires patience and faith.  Two things that I am not always good at.  More good news is that God has continued to keep the buildings open and available for us when we are ready to move forward which I believe will be sooner then later.

On a separate note, I am so proud of all of you that faithfully give each month from your commitment to the “Ride Of Your Life” campaign.  We have raised upwards of 60,000 so far and that amount continues to go up every week. 

It truly is amazing to be a part of such a revolutionary church in this area.  I look out each week and see new faces and new families.  Eight people prayed to receive Christ last week as we closed out our Supernatural series. 

On the horizon we have plans to start a third service.  Last week we were virtually full in both services!  First was 80% full and second was overflowing!  God is truly moving and we are ready to move to a 3rd service to make room for all the new families that God wants to continue bringing.

Will you pray with me as we seek the face of God for the future of our church.  Where God wants us to be and what God wants us to be about as we “Live here, Play here and Worship here”. 

xxxchurch, Las Vegas

We at tides proudly support a ministry called xxxchurch.com.  It is an internet based church that helps people with pornography addiction by providing free accountability software.  One of their ministries is attending adult entertainment conventions with the intention of handing out Bibles and sharing the good news. 

Last week Deb and I set out to meet the folks from xxxchurch in Las Vegas.  Our church staff loaded 4,000 Bibles into the back of our car and then prayed over them before we hit the road!  Our prayers consisted of asking God to put each one of the bibles into hands that would read them.  We also prayed for God’s word not to return Void. 

We knew we would have a target on our backs as we drove to Las Vegas with so much precious cargo.  So we continued to pray the whole way that we would arrive without incident.  Well….  we made it!  They don’t call me the miracle man for nothing. 

The stage was set the Bibles were stacked in the booth, just one thing left, Go!  I was reminded of Christ’s words in Matthew 28 when He said GO into all the world proclaiming the good news!  Did He have the porn shows in mind?  He must have because He was right there with us. 

We had the most amazing conversations with those in the industry along with conference goers and consumers.  A lot of people ask me is it hard to be in the show with all of the scenery around you.  The answer is, at times.  I am afraid no one would believe me if I said no.  I am reminded of quote from J. Vernon McGee, “He said I can preach to naked people just as easy as I can clothed people.  It’s my responsibility to share and God’s responsibility to put their clothes on”.  Mind you he said that about a youth summer camp that he spoke at in the 50’s when they started letting the girls wear one pieces.

The fact of the matter is when you ask God to see through His eyes He shows you all of the brokenness and sadness that these people are feeling.  The outer facade quickly fades away and your heart starts to break with the things that breaks Gods heart!

I was the most impressed with my wife who showed such a compassion and tenderness for these girls.  I would look over and see her in engaging conversations and in prayer and then watch her defend her faith to a bunch of heretics!  Pretty cool!

By the end of the week we were exhausted physically and spiritually but our stack of Bibles was gone!  We had done it 4 days and 4,000 Bibles!  The word was scattered all that needs to happen now is for the Holy Spirit to complete the work. 

Thank you for all of your prayers.  It feels great to be home and sleeping in our own bed again.  We take so much for granted.  There are so many others out there who have no hope!  We should never stop thinking of new ways to bring those who are far from God near to Him!

Welcome!

Welcome to the new tides church website. I am very excited to unveil a clean and complete user friendly site that will give you all the information you need and keep you up to date on all of the latest.

Some people ask why the new website? Great question and there actually are several great reasons. The first being, the old one was antiquated and out of date. Brian Gowing did the best he could with what he had to work with but in the end it was time for a change.

The second is this, when people come to the site they want it to be interactive, well so do we. You will now be able to not only listen to the podcast sermons but you will soon be able to watch our podcast on our new video player. On top of that I will be keeping an updated blog so you can keep up on what’s happening at tides. You can learn about everything from the progress of the building to personal things like my daily struggles and joys leading a growing church.

Lastly we are a church that is very inviting; so many people come by the site to check us out. In fact it has been said that people today will make a decision to come to our church based on our website before they even decide to step one foot on our campus. So as a result we want our website to scream Great church! We have a little motto around here, “Aim for perfection and settle for excellence.”

So, Enjoy the website and I look forward to sharing this way with you on a regular basis!